How to Craft a Map in Minecraft

If you commonly find yourself getting lost in your Minecraft world, you may want to craft yourself a map! Here’s how to do it.

Crafting Recipe

Crafting recipe for a map.

This recipe will give you a standard empty map. When in use, this map will cover a 128×128 block distance! So be careful where you put it to use so it doesn’t go to waste! 

Once you find the land you would like mapped out, right click with the map in your hand, and it will transform into a regular map!

Level 1 map in use.

The white arrow on the map represents where you are standing!

Upgrading your Map

If you want a map that covers more distance, don’t worry, it’s possible! The map shown above is a level 1 map, also known as the smallest map available. There are currently 4 different levels of maps, with the largest being 2048×2048 blocks! 

To upgrade your map, simply put your current map in a crafting table, and surround it with more paper!

Crafting recipe to level your map.

Keep doing so with your maps until you get to level 4!

Incomplete level 4 map.

When you first craft a level 4 map, it will have a bunch of empty space like above. Walk around your world to fill in those spaces! Maps cannot fill in unloaded chunks.